I grew up as a pastor’s kid.
Every week, you would find me at church, and at the age of eight, I confessed my sin, realized my need for forgiveness, and gave my life to Christ.
Like many believers, I grew up saying that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I knew He had saved me from my sin and that my life was meant to follow Him. But there was a gap between what I confessed and how I lived. I said Jesus was Lord, but I didn’t fully understand what that meant. His rule and reign felt abstract—something I affirmed theologically but hadn’t learned to live under practically. It wasn’t until I began to see Jesus as King that my faith moved from belief to worship, from confession to genuine submission.
In 2017, my wife and I started attending a church in St. Louis where we heard a phrase that caught my attention and, over time, reshaped the way I think about my faith:
King Jesus.
We walked into what is now our home church, and the pastor welcomed the congregation and encouraged us to prepare our hearts to worship King Jesus. As someone who had grown up in the church and was already a believer, it immediately stood out—especially when we realized it wasn’t just a one-time phrase. It was regularly used to describe Jesus in the worship service and in the life of the church.
King Jesus Rules Over Every Area of Life
The title King Jesus has helped me move beyond thinking of Jesus as simply my personal Lord and Savior to seeing Him as the triumphant King who rules and reigns over every area of life.
Jesus Himself declared, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). As believers, we are called to relinquish our self-rule and submit our identity and worship to the One who has all authority.
Seeing Jesus as King reminds us that our faith is not confined to a moment of salvation or a private belief. Every part of our lives—our careers, finances, children, and futures—falls under His good and rightful rule. Everything He has given us to steward ultimately falls under His dominion, not ours.
King Jesus Is Reigning—Even Now
Viewing Jesus as King has also given me greater confidence in the midst of life’s uncertainties and society’s instability. The Bible reminds us that Christ is not only our Savior but the One who holds all things together.
“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).
As the nations rage, kingdoms rise and fall, moral decay deepens, and the world feels chaotic or uncertain, we can rest knowing that King Jesus reigns over all of it.
In a culture that protests authority, we are reminded how deeply the human heart resists the true King who already reigns over everything.
King Jesus Has Brought Us into His Kingdom
Seeing Jesus as King has also reshaped how I understand the story God is telling in Scripture. The gospel is not only the forgiveness of sins; it is the announcement that the true King has come and that through Him we are brought into His Kingdom.
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death and was enthroned as the rightful King over all creation (Col. 1:13).
The story of the Bible is the story of a conquering and redeeming King who stepped down to earth, died so that we might live, and invites us to become citizens of His Kingdom. The gospel is God’s story of redemption told through the life of a gentle and lowly King who was slain for a sinful and undeserving people.
Living Under King Jesus Today
Seeing Jesus as King has changed the way I understand God and what it means to live a life worthy of His calling. It reminds me that Christianity is not simply about what Jesus has done for me in the past, but about who He is right now.
Jesus is not only the Savior who forgives sins. He is the risen King who rules and reigns over heaven and earth. Because He is King, my life is meant to be lived in joyful submission to Him (Phil. 2:10–11).
The invitation of the gospel is not merely to acknowledge that truth someday, but to begin living under the good and gracious rule of King Jesus today. The title King Jesus has shaped me not only to receive salvation by grace, but also to actively worship the One who secured it.
I spent years confessing Jesus as Lord without fully living under His rule. The phrase King Jesus changed that. It took a truth I had always believed and made it something I could actually live—in worship, in submission, in the joyful recognition that He is King over every part of my life, not just my salvation.
